Lac-Mégantic: New rules for trains carrying dangerous goods

LYNN MOORE AND MIKE DE SOUZA, THE GAZETTE AND POSTMEDIA NEWS06.05.2014

Two emergency crew workers speak as they stand in front of a pile of train wheel-set axels inside the red-zone at the site of the explosion in Lac-Mégantic. Around 100 residents were told it will likely take about a year for them be able to live in their homes again.

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MONTREAL — Trains transporting dangerous goods are not to be operated by only one person or left unmanned on a main track, Transport Canada said in an emergency directive issued Tuesday.

Trains left unattended for even short periods are to be secured from movement, notably through the systematic application of brakes, the federal body said.

Although the cause of the accident in Lac-Mégantic is still unknown, Transport Canada is acting on safety advisories received Friday from the Transportation Safety Board, its assistant deputy minister of safety and security, Gerard McDonald, said.

“The disaster brought to light several industry practices that have caused some concern,” McDonald said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

“Given that, and with an abundance of precaution, we thought it would be prudent to implement these (six) measures now.”

The directive carries the force of law and is to be effective immediately.

A runaway train with 72 tankers of crude oil sped downhill into Lac-Mégantic on July 6. Subsequent explosions killed an estimated 47 people, demolished the town’s core and spilled 5.7 million litres of crude oil, creating an environmental as well as a human disaster. All but nine of the tankers cars were involved.

The lone train engineer assigned to the tanker convoy by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway left the train on the main track when he retired for the night.

The various brakes that might have been used — or disengaged — on the locomotives and cars are under keen scrutiny in the ongoing investigations.

Following discussions with Canadian railways, Transport Canada is requiring new procedures be followed regarding the application of train brakes, including hand brakes.

The cabs of unattended locomotives must be “protected from unauthorized entry” and directional controls — known as reversers and akin to a car’s gear shifter — are to be removed from the cabs.

Enforcement of the new measures will be done through inspections, reporters were told.

“Inspection is based on our assessment of the risks of the particular situation, the particular operation ... and the performance of the specific operators,” McDonald said.

The directive runs until December, but will be extended if need be. Railways will help develop into permanent rules, he said.

There is a “distinct possibility” that other regulations will rise from the ashes of the Lac-Mégantic tragedy, he said.

Transport Canada officials declined to answer direct questions about whether the department had failed in previous years to respond to weaknesses highlighted in an audit by the federal environment watchdog in 2011 and an internal audit done five years earlier.

McDonald suggested that the 2011 audit, which recommended sweeping changes and a new risk-management system in the department’s oversight of the transportation of dangerous goods, was not related to the new emergency measures unveiled Tuesday.

He was unable to respond to revelations from internal Transport Canada documents, released to Greenpeace Canada through access-to-information legislation, that his department had “identified no major safety concerns with the increased oil on rail capacity in Canada, nor with the safety of tank cars” used for transportation of dangerous goods.

Despite long-standing warnings from the Transportation Safety Board and others about the existing steel cars and other issues, Transport Canada had dismissed the rail safety concerns in a memo prepared for International Trade Minister Ed Fast in January 2013.

The assistant deputy minister suggested he was not familiar with these recommendations.

“I can’t verify what that document is, so I’m not going to speculate about it,” McDonald said.

Spokespeople for the U.S.-based MMA were not available for comment Tuesday, an employee at the company’s office in Maine said.

Canada’s biggest railroad, Montreal-based Canadian National Railway, said the new measures will enhance rail safely.

“The government’s new safety rules will help to reduce the risk of unintended train movements that can lead to catastrophic accidents such as the one in Lac-Mégantic,” CN president and CEO Claude Mongeau said.

As a result of new measures adopted by Canadian Pacific Railway in the wake of the Lac-Mégantic disaster, CP is “in full compliance” with the measures announced Tuesday by the federal department, CP spokesman Ed Greenberg said.

Transport Canada announced the emergency measures as some federal MPs returned to Parliament to begin hearings, spearheaded by NDP transport critic Olivia Chow, on rail safety issues.

But MPs eventually accepted a motion from Ontario Conservative Jeff Watson, who questioned whether an immediate parliamentary study was necessary, to delay the hearings, pending further results from the ongoing Transportation Safety Board investigation in Lac-Mégantic.

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